In The Smog
by ASweeterReason
Summary: Travis has been acting different lately. His friends notice the sudden changes in his behaviour. They have to get to the bottom of it... but do they really want to know?
1. Never Too Innocent

Title: In The Smog   
  
Rating: PG-13-R   
  
Summary: Travis has a secret. A dark secret.   
  
Warning: Sexual abuse, language, and violence.   
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Radio Free Roscoe, Travis, and any other characters besides one's that are before-mentioned as being my own.   
  
It's another night. Another dark night. A motion, and a cry, and that was all it took. An upjump and a pain and something like a fist. Then it was a few cursing words, and a boy with a jacket jumps out his window on the ledge and hops down. He's crying, but, no one could really see it unless they got up close to him. And it's not like he would allow that at all.  
  
Any fool could see him now, walking slowly down the sidewalk with his head down. He was trying to manage his tears, they were getting in the way of his anger. Anger was important. It meant relief from tragedy. Of course, his anger... lead to tragedy. He pulled his jacket tighter around him, wondering where he could go. Where'd he'd be safe. He realizes there is no place where he could be safe.  
  
The tears are hot, salty, spilling over his cheeks and over his lips and down his chin. He licks them away, the taste makes him gag, and he walks faster. He approaches a house, a brightly lit house, and he steps up to it. He knocks on the door. A girl answers. His tears are gone now, and he's smiling. He was never crying. No he wasn't. What are you talking about, he was never crying.  
  
The girl smiles and invites him in. He smiles back and nods. They walk in together and she closes the door behind them. Everything is fine. Everything is going to be fine. He's not fine.  
  
~  
  
"Hey, what do you think the velocity of a penny is?" Ray was working on a random science question. "You know, that is the most stupid question I have ever had to answer. It's like, when am I ever going to need to know the velocity of a penny?"  
  
"When you're... dropping a penny off a roof?" Robbie shrugged. He was on his PDA, IMing his cousin on the AIM program and asking him about what time to come over that weekend.  
  
"Well yeah but... oh shut up Robbie, you're making me look bad." Ray made a pfft sound as Lily poked his shoulder, then glanced over at Travis, who was sitting in a corner, staring straight ahead. He had nothing to eat, which was odd, it being lunch... and all.  
  
"Whats wrong with you today?" Lily asked him, reaching over and poking him as well. Travis just about jumped out of his chair. He glared angrily at her. "Why'd you do that? Can't you see I'm thinking?"   
  
Ray glanced over at him, eyed him for a moment, then said modestly, "Looks more like you're hyper-ventilating, but thats just my opinion."   
  
Lily quickly withdrew herself from him, holding her hands up. "Sorry, sorry, but you ALWAYS have that far away look, if you haven't noticed."   
  
Travis sighed, with a slight angry glint still in his eye, went back to his brooding position. He hadn't meant to be so harsh. He wasn't in the best of moods, that was all. Nothing else.   
  
Robbie glanced down at his macaroni and cheese. "So... I take it someone had a rough night, Travis?"  
  
Travis refused to comment. The stoney look upon his pale features was enough to tell even the most dim of people that he had, in fact, had a horrible night.   
  
Ray just sat there, listening to the conversation. He was taking everything in. Occasionally, however, he would glance at Lily, then look back at his apparently amazingly interesting shoes.   
  
Lily noticed the quick glance and smiled to herself. But, she wouldn't dare smile out loud, no. That would be too obvious. Pausing for a moment, she sighed. "Well, we should get to class... lunch is almost over, you know."   
  
Ray nodded, standing too quickly and knocking his water bottle over. It spilled over the table, and in only a brief few seconds, had covered Robbie's PDA and leaked onto Travis's lap.   
  
Lily's eyes got wide and she grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair, throwing it over the leak.   
  
Robbie grabbed his PDA as quickly as he could, rubbing it with the bottom corner of his shirt. Things like that happened too often for him to truly complain. However, Travis was almost fuming.   
  
"You idiot, you're always doing stuff like this, always messing things up! This is the thirt time you've done something like this since last week!" Travis yelled at Ray, jumping up and knocking his chair over.   
  
Ray cringed. "I'm sorry, Travis, I didn't mean to... and it's only the second! Oh wait, yeah, it's the third, my bad." He glanced around. People had heard the yelling and were now whispering to each other, eyes locked on the four.   
  
Lily put a hand on Travis's shoulder, saying softly, "It's ok, Travis, it's not even that much... and Ray didn't mean to, it was an accident..."   
  
Robbie held out his own jacket. "Here, take mine if you don't want to walk around with a wet stain on the front of your jeans."  
  
Travis shrugged out of Lily's grasp, looking away, "No, thanks, I'm just gonna..." He didn't finish, instead making a jog for the exit of the cafeteria.   
  
Once he had burst through the door, he quickly made his way to the boys bathroom, ignoring the odd looks that two of the teacher's who were talking in the hallway were giving him.  
  
Gulping for air. Water splashing on his face. There was more embarrassment over what he had said to Ray than the large stain on his jeans. He stumbled into a stall,   
  
crouching his back and sliding down the wall. Eyes closed. Breathing hard.  
  
"Boy, get back in here!" Running.  
  
"No, get away from me, please!" Screaming.  
  
"You can't get away from me, hold still you good for nothing bastard!" More screaming.  
  
"Please, no..." Crying.  
  
His eyes shot back open. "Please, no!" He shouted as the stall door opened.   
  
"Look, I know I'm clumsy and shouldn't have spilled that water on you... but, I'm really not THAT clumsy." Ray stood there, both eyebrows raised.   
  
Travis sighed in relief. He stood quickly, looking at Ray with a forgiving, yet almost patronizing smile. "It's fine, Ray, don't worry about it." He walked out, leaving a  
  
confused Ray to himself. 


	2. Is this for real?

"What do you think is wrong with Travis?" Robbie asked Lily as they both made their way out of school. It was around 3:30, and they wanted to get to the station earlier than usual. Lily shrugged in response. She didn't quite know what was going on, with no real clue of who to ask. Besides Travis of course. And he obviously did not want to talk about it.  
  
"I don't know, Robbie, but I guess... we can just leave him alone. And see if he wants to talk about it later." Lily sighed. Once they were outside on the steps, they noticed someone very familiar sitting at the bottom, doodling in her notebook. Audrey.  
  
"Um, Audrey, can we talk to you a minute?" Lily sat down beside her. Robbie hung back, deciding he probably wouldn't be too helpful in the situation. It seemed like girls talked more easily without a guy in the picture.   
  
Audrey looked up at her, startled. She quickly closed her notebook and shoved it in her bookbag. "Um, yeah, sure."   
  
"Uhm, well, you see... Travis... sort of freaked out in the cafeteria today. And we were wondering if... maybe you guys were fighting, and thats what the problem was." Lily quickly added, "Not to be intrusive, or anyting like that..."  
  
Audrey looked solemn. "No, it's alright to be concerned about your friends. But there's nothing wrong with him, me, or our relationship."  
  
Robbie, who was half heartedly listening to their conversation, quickly made his way over to them to add his own two-cents. "But, he went postal on Ray for being his normal self. There's got to be something wrong with him."  
  
"No, there's not. There's nothing wrong with him at all." Audrey stood quickly. She picked up her bag and tossed it over her shoulder. "Nothing at all. So... just... leave it alone." She hurried off in the other direction with a disturbed look on her face. Lily wasn't really sure what to say. Neither was Robbie.  
  
"Well... that went... well." A voice behind both of them made them turn. Ray stood there with his eyebrows raised.   
  
"Shut up Ray. Where have you been?" Lily sighed and stood as well.   
  
"Hey, don't kill the messenger. I was looking for Travis. He wasn't around anywhere." Ray joined them where they stood, glancing around nervously. "He wasn't in last period either."  
  
Robbie shoved his hands down in his pockets. "Well, then, maybe he's at the station already or something. Maybe Audrey's right. Maybe he IS fine and Ray just picked a bad day to be the klutz that he is."  
  
Ray looked at him, glaring. "Hey, thats not very nice!"  
  
Lily looked off somewhere else while the two lightly bickered. She was confused and a bit annoyed at Audrey's persistent denial that anything was wrong. It seemed at though she was hiding something... but what?  
  
~  
  
"Down by the station, early in the morning..." Travis sang softly to himself. He sorted through a few CDs that he would be using for today's show. He found none that really appealed to him. "See the little pufferbellys..." He didn't get to finish. At that moment, Lily pushed open the door and grinned.  
  
"There's the man of the hour. Hey Travis, how ya doin'?" She ran over to him and put her arm around his shoulders, squeezing. Travis looked at her in a confused way. "I'm... fine, Lily, how are you?"  
  
"Never better... are those the CDs for today?" Lily picked up a few that were laid out in front of Travis, reading the back of them. "Great selection... very mellow. Very relaxing." Travis was still confused as to why Lily was being so nice and perky all of a sudden.  
  
'Must be trying to get something out of me... she must be wondering why I freaked out earlier.' He thought to himself. "Yes... I thought maybe our listeners could use some relaxtion time, after that cruel test in Science today."   
  
Lily grinned. "I completely agree." 'I wonder if he's catching onto me... no, no way, I'm just being the way I always am... right, I think my face is stuck.' She dropped her grin and looked over at the door. Ray and Robbie were now standing there, eyebrows raised.  
  
"Um, I hate to break up this love fest, but we have a show in... about two minutes." Robbie walked in quickly, sitting down at his spot. Ray followed, as did Lily. Travis jumped up and walked quickly into the control booth, counting down until it was time for the show to start.  
  
"Hi, I'm Question Mark and I'm wondering... do your friends ever just start acting really strange, out of the blue?" Robbie looked at Travis when he said this, obviously making a reference to what happened earlier that day. Travis looked away, avoiding the glances he was receiving.  
  
"You know what I mean. Lets say your best friend comes to school with a smile. But by the end of the day... he... or she... is sobbing?" Robbie continued.  
  
Ray intervened, putting in his two cents. "Um, well, if it's a guy... no clue. But if it's a girl, I think 'I' know why." Ray looked at Lily, smirking. "PMS, my friend. PMS."  
  
Lily glared. "Well, thats just a little sexist, isn't it, Pronto? I know why a guy would all of a sudden be all weird and moody. Because he's simply A GUY. All guys can be touchy and strange... it seems their PMS is much more severe than a girl's."  
  
"Ah, but... uh... guys don't have PMS! So... there!" Ray knew it was a horrible comeback... but he couldn't lose the argument.  
  
"That was great, Pronto." Lily rolled her eyes. "But on a more serious note, lets take some calls."  
  
Travis held up a sign with the name "Ilizabeth" on it.  
  
"Iliza, tell us your friend-gone-mental story." Ray waited for the answer.  
  
"Well, my friend, she's been acting REALLY weird lately. Like, the other day, she came to school with PINK fingernail polish and a PURPLE sweater! Hello, clash-o-rama!" Everyone rolled their eyes except for Lily, who's 'girly genes', as Ray had so nicely put it once, were kicking in.  
  
"That is odd... hm... maybe you should just help her re-accesorize... like, tell her to get her tips filled in with pink in..." Lily looked around at her male friends, who were giving her raised eyebrows. "...stead. Um, next caller."  
  
Travis quickly wrote down the name "ModAud" on the sign.  
  
"Hello Moddy, you're on the air." Robbie listened.  
  
"Well, um... my close friend... he's been acting a little strangely lately. Been a lot more sensitive, he... comes over to my house a lot crying... but he won't tell me why. His friends are concerned about him, but I don't know what to tell them because 'I' don't know what's going on either. I think it might be because..." She was cut off, however, by a whirring sound, then a dead line.   
  
Travis had ended her call. "Uh, technical glitch." He stammered to them all.   
  
Robbie watched him for a moment. He knew it had been Audrey on the line, he could recognize her voice AND her case. "Sorry bout that ModAud... we need to move on anyways, Shady, you pick a topic."  
  
Lily stared at him, then Travis, then Ray, who gave her a shrug. "Uh, yeah, ok..." She thought to herself, 'There's something wrong here. Something horribly, horribly, horribly wrong.' 


	3. AUTHORS NOTE

A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Our computer crashed, and I had to use another one that wouldn't let me access fanfiction.net. But now that ours is fixed, I'll hopefully update within this week! So, yeah, thats all. Bye! ASweeterReason 


	4. Rescue Ray

Travis took his time in walking home that night. He had no real rush to get there, what would be waiting for him? Not something appealing or happy, no, nothing like that. Home was beginning to get darker. The night was beginning to get darker. He rubbed his hands together, trying to block the cold from entering his body. The rubbing didn't help much at all. With a sigh, he resorted to simply wrapping his jacket tighter around his cold frame. Strange, however, that he would be so cold in 80 degree weather.  
  
When he reached home, he reluctantly took out his house key and slid it slowly into the lock of the wood door. After a few seconds of turning, it opened. He stepped in quietly, locking the door behind him. It was almost completely dark in the house. 'Good, maybe no one is home,' He thought to himself. Travis's relief-filled thoughts were interrupted by a loud crush and obscene cursing coming from the kitchen. He made a quick break for the stairs. If he could just run to his room and lock the door… "Where ya going, champy?" Shit. Shit, shit, shit.  
  
He turned slowly. His cousin, Maurice, stood there. Maurice looked nothing like Travis. Travis had blonde hair; Maurice had black. Travis had brown eyes; Maurice had green. There was another thing that Maurice had that Travis didn't share. A drinking problem. A horrible one, one that he wasn't able to control. "Oh. Hi, Maur, I didn't know you were back. Where's…" "Your parents? They went out." Maurice shrugged and leaned against the wall, keeping his eyes glued on Travis's.  
  
'If I can back up slowly… then take off, I can make it to my room…' Travis, without him knowing it, had started shaking. "Oh. Well, I have homework." He turned quickly and made a mad dash for his room. Not fast enough. Maurice had him by his ankle in no time. "What's your hurry, champy?"  
  
Lily was on the phone right after she got home from the station. "I'm really worried about Travis, Robbie. I think something is seriously wrong with him. Did you see how he freaked out when that girl called?" "Yeah, it had to be Audrey. I mean, c'mon, ModAud? Friend who has been freaking out? It's so obvious. She has to know something…" Robbie paused. "Maybe we can trick him into talking." Silence on the other end. "Just listen. We can… wait, I have someone on my other line." He clicked the appropriate button and said, "Hello?" "Yeah, Robbie, it's me. Ray. We need to talk. I tried to call Travis. No answer…" Ray chirped worriedly into his cellphone. He was walking down the block, towards Travis's house. "So I'm at his house. I'm going to see what's up." Robbie made a wincing sound and went back to his other line. "Ray's at Travis's house." "What? We'd better get over there. And quick. Knowing Ray…" Lily didn't get a chance to finish. Robbie had turned off his phone, and was heading very quickly for the door.  
  
"Thanks for hanging up on me, Rob." Ray rolled his eyes. He shoved his cellphone down into his pocket. A little voice inside of him said that this was a bad, bad idea. And another little voice was yelling, 'Do it! Do it!'. So there he was. Listening to little voices in his head and going off to 'rescue' his friend. Wonderful. With a sigh, he stopped in front of Travis's house. "It's now or never."  
  
He walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. No answer. He rang it again. No answer. Three combinations of ringing the door and knocking later, still no answer. He turned the knob… it was locked. Now it was time for Ray's favorite little magic trick. The whole, paperclip in the lock trick. It was successful, and in no time, Ray was mentally patting himself on the back and stepping inside the house. "So Boy Scouts was good for something." Glancing around, he called out, "Travis! Are you here?" All he got in reply was dead silence. "Creepy."  
  
Ray raised an eyebrow. He was about to walk to the kitchen, when he heard a groan from upstairs. "Travis?" He called once more. And that was his cue to either: be the helpful, concerned friend that came to his best friend's rescue, or the normal coward who sent someone else in… oh well. Might as well come out the hero in this. He started for the stairs.  
  
"Here goes nothing." Ray muttered under his breath. 


End file.
